Experience of and recommendations for creating new rural and remote psychology placements

ABSTRACT

Changing some profession-specific placement requirements will facilitate future placement creation and sustainabilityPsychology is inequitably distributed between metropolitan and rural/remote areas; creating rural/remote student placements can help redress this discrepancy. We describe our experience developing and piloting a rural and remote psychology placement delivered through the WA Centre for Rural Health (WACRH) in the Pilbara region. Placement creation involved intensive planning and preparation from university academics (who hold professional and course requirement knowledge) and WACRH staff (who hold knowledge of local placements for other allied health students, healthcare systems, and culture). Many challenges were profession-specific, such as finding and compensating board-approved supervisors and ensuring compliance with accreditation standards. Having cultural safety training in the local area and the ability of staff to travel to the region to support students facilitated the placement. Recommendations to improve the feasibility and sustainability of future rural and remote placements include financial investment, possibly modifying placement requirements, and incentivising students. We intend this report to encourage and guide creation of future rural and remote psychology placements. Working towards increasing placements across the different levels and areas of professional psychology is a needed next step, which can be helped by relatively modest change and investment. This initiative has implications for where similar access issues exist globally.

KEY POINTS

What is already known about this topic:

1. Mental health services are less accessible for Australians who live in rural and remote areas than those in metropolitan areas.

2. This is despite at least the same need for mental health support.

3. Increasing rural and remote psychology placements is needed to address workforce deficiencies and mental health service disparities.

What this topic adds:

1. Creating sustainable rural and remote placements that meet institution, accreditation, health workforce, local community, and student needs is complex and requires substantial preparation.

2. Financial investment and careful supervision arrangements are needed to adequately support such placements.

3. Changing some profession-specific placement requirements will facilitate future placement creation and sustainability.

KEYWORDS:

• Rural
• remote
• psychology placement
• work readiness

Acknowledgements

We extend our sincerest thanks to Karratha Central Healthcare Staff for hosting the clinical psychology placement that was the outcome of the planning described in this report. Our sincerest thanks also to the first students to try the placement, Megan Ansell and Phoebe Carrington-Jones. Our gratitude to all other services and their staff, including those who referred patients, and to those in the community who used the service.

Disclosure statement

Rohan Rasiah is Chair of the Karratha Central Healthcare (KCH) Board, where the pilot placements were held. There are no other relevant financial or non-financial competing interests to report.